506 
THE RURAL f8EW-¥©RSCER. 
AUG 3 
spring they begin germinating at about tho 
time the fruit Is forming, finding at this sea¬ 
son just the conditions necessary for rapid de¬ 
velopment. This in part explains why, as 
stated in the beginning, infection of the fruit 
usually takes place in spriDg. Another reason 
for this, and one perhaps to which more im¬ 
portance should be attached than to the pre¬ 
ceding, is that at this period the cuticle or 
skin of the apple is thin and delicate, conse¬ 
quently it is more easily penetrated by the 
germ tubes from the spores. 
At Figure 190 is shown a section of the skin 
of An apple affected with the scab. The upper 
figure illustrates the germinating spores. 
These drawings are very highly magnified. 
It will be seen from the foregoing remarks 
that the life history of the fungus, so far as 
known, is exceedingly simple, yet, notwith¬ 
standing this, the importance of knowing how 
the fungus lives will become more apparent 
when we discuss the means employed for com¬ 
bating it. Before taking up the latter sub¬ 
ject, it might be well to have it understood 
that the development of the fungus on the 
leaves is practically the same as that which 
takes place on the fruit. The same dark-col¬ 
ored stroma, bearing its stalks and spores, is 
produced in the former as is in the latter case 
and it is these that give to the spots the ap¬ 
pearance already described and shown at Fig. 
189. 
TREATMENT. 
From what has been said it is obvious that 
the first steps in the way of treatment should 
be taken with the view of getting rid of as 
much of the infectious material as possible. 
Beginning then in autumn, the affected leaves 
and fruit—such of the latter as may be unfit 
for the hogs—should be carefully raked to¬ 
gether and burned. Where the trees are bad¬ 
ly affected some advocate the pruning and 
burning of the young twigs, and it is very 
probable that this will result in much benefit, 
as the spores which winter upon these are al¬ 
most certain to infect the leaves and fruit the 
following spring. After taking such steps as 
will insure the destruction of as many of the 
spores as possible, some fungicide, that will 
prevent the rest of the spores from infecting 
the leaves and fruit, ; should be applied. 
For this purpose a solution made by dis¬ 
solving one-half an ounce of sulphuret of 
potassium (liver of sulphur) to a gallon of 
water, will be found as cheap, practical and 
efficacious as any. Make the first application 
of this solution when the young fruit is about 
the size of peas, taking care to spray with 
sufficient force to reach all parts of the tree. 
If the weather is unusually cold and moist at 
this time, extra precautions should be taken 
to bring the fungicide in contact with all of 
the fruit. The second application should be 
made 10 or 15 dayslater, after which it should 
be repeated at intervals of two or three weeks 
until five or six sprayings in all Jiave been 
made. Pumps and nozzles, suitable for ap¬ 
plying these solutions, may be obtained at 
very reasonable cost from almost any of the 
firms who deal in insecticide apparatus. 
In conclusion, it might be well to say that, 
before storing the fruit it should be carefully 
assorted and all the scabby apples thrown out. 
The importance, too, of keeping the fruit as 
free from unnecessary moisture as possible, is 
evident from what is known concerning the 
development of the fungus. 
FEED AND SKULL FORMATION. 
Mr. Olof Schwartz Kopff contributes a 
paper to the last bulletin of the Minnesota 
Experiment Station, in which he states some 
curious facts regarding the skull and teeth of 
the hog. Without going into the details of the 
experiments recorded by Mr. Schwartz, we 
may say the following are his conclusions:— 
I. The order of succession of the teeth in 
our precocious pigs remains the same as in the 
primitive hog. 
II. The times when the teeth appear are 
variaDle, according to the race, feeding and 
health. The same breeds, raised under the 
same conditions, will show the same appear¬ 
ance. 
III. The form of the skull depends upon 
nutrition, health and more or less employ¬ 
ment of certain muscles of the head and neck. 
Mr. S. says that the pig has, perhaps, the 
most elastic and changeable organization of 
all of our domestic animals. It also has the 
advantage of being able to digest all kinds of 
food as an omnivorous animal; last, though 
notleasi, it multiplies more rapidly than any 
other domestic animal, even the sheep. There¬ 
fore it has been at all times regarded, and 
properly, too, as the animal par excellence 
for experiments in breeding, and the pig is 
the best example of what men have accom¬ 
plished in the production of animals. Hither¬ 
to zoologists have been of the opinion that 
the form of skull of a fixed species is un¬ 
changeable from generation to generation, 
we may ray for thousands of years. This is 
correct as long as we think of individuals 
raised in the freedom of nature and under 
natural and similar circumstances. But do¬ 
mestication, with its forced feeding and 
breeding for various demands, has brought 
about changes in many respects, and it is now 
evident that the form of the skull does not 
rest merely upon heredity. Continued weak¬ 
ness, caused either by disease or insufficient 
food, produces a long, slender skull, while the 
skull from a strong pig shows a remarkable 
expansion in its latitude and altitude. 
Besides the nutrition influence, a strong or 
weak muscular action plays an important 
part in the production of form. The pulling 
and pressure of muscles extensively used for 
certain purposes, especially those of the head 
and neck, will give the head a characteristic 
shape. Pigs which are prevented from root¬ 
ing will acquire a short, high and rounded 
head, while those which are forced to root to 
secure a portion of their food will develop a 
long and slender form of head. If we force 
both experiments to the greatest degree possi¬ 
ble, we shall produce those extremes which 
distinguish the wild pigs from our improved 
races. That this is true is proven by the fact 
that when our domestic hogs are returned to 
absolute liberty, it will require but a few 
generations to reproduce the original skull of 
the wild pig. And, vice versa, we have called 
into existence from the primitive hog all 
those different representative types of our 
day, by careful and continued selection, 
gradual assortment, and particular attention 
to the desired qualities of form, size, etc. The 
striking difference between the skull of a 
primitive hog and a modern one is seen in our 
pictures, Fig. 191 showing the skull of a Texas 
boar, the typical wild hog, and Fig. 192 show¬ 
ing the skull of a Yorkshire sow—the “lazy ’ 
hog par excellence. 
farm Caxmaimj. 
■ 
PLOWING 01 SHIM 
IS IT PRACTICABLE? 
TRSCTIOH ENGINES vs. NORSE POWER I 
Ale old books on agriculture contain a 
chapter on steam plowing in which the prac¬ 
tice is hinted at as a possibility. Many trials of 
steam plows have been made in England, and 
while some of these implements have given 
fair satisfaction, they now seem to be giving 
place to a new implement—the steam digger. 
In this machine a number of heavy spades 
take the place of plows These spades are 
driven into the soil by mechanism somewhat 
similar to that employed in a bay tedder. 
Thus these large spades work in the soil with 
much the same movement as is given to an 
ordinary spade in the hands of a strong work¬ 
man. The diggers are hauled over the ground 
by traction engines. They dig at the rate of 
an acre per hour. The steam digger has not 
yet been brought to this country, so far as the 
R. N.-Y. is aware. Some of the makers of 
traction engines have produced a “ plowing 
outfit ” to accompany the engine when de¬ 
sired. One that seems to have been quite suc¬ 
cessful is made by the Geiser Manufacturing 
Co. This is quite a simple contrivance. Six 
large plows are attached to a heavy frame 
which can be fastened behind a traction en¬ 
gine with suitable connections for raising or 
lowering the plows. In plowing, the engine 
moves across the field, hauling the frame be¬ 
hind it and plowing a space six times as 
wide as the ordinary furrow. The R. N.- 
'5'. has been communicating with a number 
of persons who have used this “outfit.” The 
points we most desired to make clear are cov¬ 
ered by the following questions : 
1. On what soils does the steam plow do 
its best work and on what soils does it fail? 
2. Must the land be entirely level? 
3. How does the cost compare with that of 
horse-work ? 
4. What speed can be maintained? 
5. Can the steam plow work in soft or wet 
ground? 
6. Is it at all probable that steam plowing 
will become general in any section of this 
country? Is it to be a factor in the work of 
large farms only? 
FROM J. F. MIDLER. 
5 I have never used any steam-plowing ma¬ 
chinery, but a neighbor has a road engine 
and I employed him to break up some land 
for me. He uses the engine to run a thrasher 
and to plow and to do anything that a station¬ 
ary engine will do. It will travel over any 
ordinary country road as easily as a wagon, 
and haul almost anything that is hitched to it. 
In plowing for me he used six plows, cutting 
about 14 inches each in width and about 10 
inches in depth. The plows are fast and cut 
everything and turn it under. I consider the 
work done much better than any that can be 
done by horses. It breaks any soil, and 
works as well in rolling as in level land, but 
will not work if the hill sides are very steep. 
The owner charged me $2 per acre for 
breaking land, and I believe he broke about 
15 acres per day. The speed is about equal to 
that of a good pair of horses, but it could be 
made to run faster if desired. The great 
trouble with this engine is the difficulty of 
keeping it fed with water, as it does not carry 
much water and requires an extra team and 
frequent stoppages to obtain a fresh supply. It 
can work wherever horses can, if the land is 
not too steep, but it requires careful atten¬ 
tion, and several hands to keep it supplied 
with water. It is entirely too expensive ever 
to come into general use—cozting about $3,- 
500—except upon large farms where there are 
large quantities of land to be broken up, 
grain to be thrashed, silage, etc., to be cut 
and hay to be pressed. It is not adapted to 
the cultivating of crops after ■ they are 
planted. 
Gonzales, Texas. 
FROM G. W. HUGHES. 
I have tried the steam plow over a year 
and have plowed 300 acres with it. I have 
found no soil in which it failed to do extra¬ 
good work except where the lapd was too wet 
to be plowed. I think it will plow anywhere 
and in any kind of soil when the latter is dry 
enough to be plowed, and it will do much bet¬ 
ter work than can be done in the old v/ay by 
horse power, except where the ground is too 
hilly or rough to run a traction engine over, 
and the cost of plowing by steam is less than 
half that of plowing by horse-power. It travels 
about as fast as a good brisk team, pulling 
six 14-inch plows or turning seven feet at 
once going across the field. I think in a few 
years steam plows will be in general use all 
over the country like steam thrashers, and 
that every man who gets a traction engine for 
thrashing will get one large enough to pull 
plows and he go around plowing just as he 
now goes around thrashing. I use my 
engine almost all the year, beginning in 
the spring plowing about 15 acres per day. 
Through the thrashing season I run a 30 inch 
cylinder separator. After that is over, I do 
fall plowing. When it freezes up I use my 
machine for shelling corn and grinding feed. 
I can, and have shelled and ground 90bushels 
of corn per hour, and the cobs will more than 
make fuel for the engine while doing that 
amount of work. 
Hume, Illinois. 
FnOM J. N MANCHESTER. 
I have been using steam power on the farm 
for three years and it has been very satisfac¬ 
tory. It is adapted for all good farming land 
that is free from stumps and stones. I have 
used my outfit among stumps, but the work is 
rather tedious and slow. The plow works 
well on ordinary hilly ground ana the engine 
is so constructed as to keep the water on the 
crown sheet going down hill. 
It would cost me fully one-third more to do 
the same amount of work with horses, and 
then it would not be done as well as the steam 
power does it. The engine can travel about 
three miles per hour. It cannot work in soft 
or wet soil; but when soil is in condition to 
be plowed, there is no trouble in using this 
outfit. I believe steam plowing will become 
general on all large farms, Where a man has 
200 or 300 acres to plow, and has other work 
for the engine to do, I consider it a paying 
investment. I use my engine for hauling 
grain to market. Last spring I delivered 
7,000 bushels of ear corn at Wapakonela, Ohio, 
which is 17 miles from my farm, makiug the 
round trip every other day. I had 12 wagons 
attached to the engine and each wagon aver¬ 
aged from 60 to 05 bushels, making about 775 
bushels each trip, and the expense of this was 
about one cent per bushel, besides the use of 
the engine and wagons. Part of the road is 
quite hilly. In 1887 I attached two self-bind¬ 
ers to the engine and cut 150 acres of wheat, 
I alzo use this engine for sawing wood and 
lumber, and thrashing, etc. 
Belle Center, O. 
FROM W. L. SHERWOOD. 
Our steam plow is adapted for almost all 
kinds of soils. It has never failed in any 
soil. It makes no difference whether the 
ground is level or not. I have plowed up and 
down hill where the grade was more than six 
feet to the rod without any trouble and with 
as much ease as on level ground. I can gen¬ 
erally do as much work in one day with the 
steamer as I can do with a team in 15 days, 
and the quality of the work cannot be beaten 
by any team and hand plow. It doesn’t cost 
me over $4 a day to run the outfit and gener¬ 
ally a great deal less. The speed depends on 
the nature and condition of the ground. In 
good mellow ground i can go about twice as 
fast as horses; in tough prairie sod a good 
deal less. When the ground is in a good con¬ 
dition to plow with horses, one can plow with 
the steamer. I have no doubt that in a few 
years steam plows will be used as much 
as the self-binder is now used to cut grain. 
For when one gets his plowing done he has a 
first-class steam engine, large enough to run a 
thrashing machine, a saw-mill, a feed-mill or 
any other farm machinery. The size of the 
farm a man has doesn’t make any difference; 
if he hasn’t enough to do for himself, he can 
always find other people who want plowing 
and other work done although it is better if a 
person has a farm large enough to keep his 
machine employed all the time. 
Brashear, Mo. 
FROM H. H. BURNS. 
I have had such a machine for two years 
and it has given great satisfaction. The char¬ 
acter of the soil makes no difference. I have 
plowed the blackest gumbo which no one 
could have plowed with a team. The cost of 
steam plowing depends on the price of labor 
and coal. I can plow about 15 acres per day. 
It takes two men on the engine, one to steer 
and one to fire and tend to the plows, and one 
team and man to haul the water. About 15 
to 20 bushels of coal are used per day accord¬ 
ing to its quality. We have very poor coal 
here. The expense will depend on the wages 
paid to the hands. I pay the two men on the 
engine $2.00 each per day, the man and team 
hauling water $2.50; the coal, say, 18 bushels 
at 11 cents per bushel $1.98, making together 
$8.48 for plowing 15 acres; when a man plows 
here by the acre with a team he gets from $2 to 
$2 50 per acre. Then I can plow with my 
steam plow.where no man can plow with a 
team at any price. The speed is ordinarily 
about two miles per hour, but it depends alto¬ 
gether on the nature of the ground and on 
the two men on the engine. The ground 
must not be too soft, but it can 
be worked at almost any time when it is fit to 
be plowed by a team. I believe that steam 
plowing is the coming great improvement 
where the farms are large. I use my engine 
not only for plowing but also for thrashing, 
running a saw-mill.and grinding corn. The 
first steam plow was brought hero about five 
years ago, by some farmers who had a big lot 
of waxy gumbo land with which they never 
could have done anything with a team, for 
when it was not too wet, it was so hard and 
dry that it took five horses to move a plow. 
The people took the steam plow on trial; took 
it into the same field with six plows, and the 
engine pulled them better than the five horses 
pulled one plow. From that time on they 
put in from 200 to 400 acres of wheat on that 
waxy land and were well satisfied. 
Bt. Charles, Mo. 
farm (Topics. 
BUCEPHALUS BROWN’S NOTIONS AND 
IDEAS. 
Those Jersey Farms, whereon such large 
quantities of commercial fertilizer are found 
to pay, illustrate strongly how necessary it is 
for the farmer to understand the ruling con¬ 
ditions of his locality. These Jerseymen are 
near enough to the big cities to get fancy 
prices (compared with those obtainable in in¬ 
terior States) for two common crops—pota¬ 
toes and grass. Wheat is, of course, used as a 
convenient seeding crop to protect the young 
grass from the sun. There can be no profit in 
it, and not a great deal in the corn. The 
money crops are, clearly, the early potatoes 
and the fancy bay. 
The Profit in Potatoes.— But even at a 
distance from business centers, potatoes and 
grass may still be found the most profitable 
crops, with this difference, that the potatoes 
only will pay freight over a long haul, and 
the grass must be fed at home. Thus the 
Aroostook region of Maine makes a rotation 
of potatoes, small grain (wheat or cats), and 
grass, it being too far north for corn as a sure 
grain crop. New England farmers do not 
